


Having The Camp (and each other) To Themselves

by silveradept



Category: In Other Lands | The Turn of the Story - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Elvish Customs, Families of Choice, Holiday Traditions, Hot Chocolate, Multi, Shameless Elliot Schafer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28074288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: For their first winter all together, Elliot, Luke, Serene, and Golden aged to watch over the Borderguard camp. They're glad to be with each other, even if they're all there because they know there's nowhere else to go but where the others are. Elliot bright the hot chocolate.
Relationships: Golden/Elliot Schafer/Serene/Luke Sunborn
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Books of Yule





	Having The Camp (and each other) To Themselves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [C-chan (1001paperboxes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/gifts).



"Stop," Elliot said, pointing a finger at Golden-Hair-Scented-Like-Summer. 

The elf looked at him in confusion. "I didn't say anything."

"You were just about to give me a beauty tip," Elliot retorted. "Something that I'm sure is second nature to elves and that you can't believe humans don't do it."

"Well, you could certainly use some beauty work," Golden said. "You could at least _try_ to look like you're in the same league as this handsome man," he added, indicating Luke, who was running a combat drill and trying to make sure his wings didn't get in the way of his sword.

Elliot laughed at that thought. "I thought Serene had told you enough stories about me to shrivel any hope you ever had of turning me into a proper gentleman. You are right, though, that Luke is hot. Let's all state at him lustily until he turns red with embarrassment." Elliot turned his head and fixed Like with his gaze. Golden turned his head toward Luke, giving him a gentler and much more appreciative stare.

"Boys," Serene-Heart-In-The-Chaos-of-Battle said from the doorway to the cabin. "Would you cease your flirting and come join me? The fire is ready."

"You are shameless," Golden said to Elliot as his gaze lingered on Serene's form. "Is there a being you wouldn't try to have sex with?"

Elliot considered the question.

" _Now_ ," Serene said.

"Right away," Elliot said, and headed inside, Golden following quickly behind.

"Why doesn't that ever work for _me_?" Luke grumbled as he folded his wings close enough to his body to get through the door.

"You have not learned the appropriate tone to take with them," Serene said mildly. "It is something that elf girls are taught from a young age, so you must not be discouraged about not mastering it immediately. Although, I must admit, neither of them was ever particularly obedient at first."

Golden looked slightly embarrassed, but Elliot grinned in response. "And you saw how well that worked out," he said. "You have the sexiest man, elf, and loser in the Borderlands all on your squad." 

"Who are all looking after the training camp while everyone else is home with their families," Luke said. "Even Captain Woodsinger isn't here." Elliot had insisted that then-Commander Woodsinger get a promotion on the strength of the treaties that had been signed all over the world, but the Borderguard had unanimously approved the promotion based on Captain Woodsinger's success at graduating Cadet Schafer "without any of Cadet Schafer's unwise decisions becoming lethal or Captain Woodsinger killing him personally," according to the official commendation.

"Well, it's not like any of us have families we're trying to go home to," Elliot said defensively, starting to pull small boxes and bags from his pack. "I left half of my family over the wall and the other half did the same to me long before I joined up. All of the Sunborns are jerks for not finding accommodations for Luke's wings, and Serene and Golden ran off together, proving he's smarter than most elf men and that she's the most chaotic of the Chaos clan by a mile."

"Elliot," Luke said, "stop talking. Please."

"What is all this for?," Golden said, as Elliot started arranging the bags and boxes on the table near the hearth fire.

"Well, since I knew we were going to be by ourselves for the holiday season, I made a quick run over the border for some necessary supplies."

"I'm surprised your pack isn't trying to catch fire," Luke said. "You're usually trying to get some gadget over the border."

"I'm getting it delivered after the new year," Elliot said nonchalantly. Golden and Luke both looked at Elliot with disbelief. "It's not any fun unless Captain Woodisnger has to deal with the fallout," Elliot added.

"That makes it worse, Elliot," Luke protested.

"What's a marshmallow?" Golden asked, pointing at the bag of jumbo puffs.

"An essential component of a good hot chocolate," Elliot said. "It's best when you've got warm milk to make it with, but until someone figures out how to make a refrigerator that works here, we'll have to do it with water instead. Go fill this for me, Luke." Elliot thrust a pan into Luke's hands.

"My Golden, would you accompany Luke?" Serene said. "It will be good to familiarize yourself with this camp." Golden looked at Serene, like he wanted to say something, but then smiled brightly and followed Luke out the door.

"Elliot," Serene said, as soon as they had left. "What bothers you?"

Elliot shrugged. "Nothing."

Serene snorted. "Are you and Luke fighting again?"

"No," Elliot said, continuing to set out cups and supplies he'd collected from the kitchen cabins.

"It is better to tell me rather than make me guess," Serene said pointedly. "We both know that Luke and Golden will be happy to hold you down and let me tickle you until you tell me about your problems."

"Tickle torture doesn't sound terrible," Elliot said, smiling.

"Have you ever been tickled by a knife edge before?" Serene asked. "It's a good way of telling whether an elf man is worthy of the woman pursuing him."

"Now, you see, when you say that with a straight face, I can't tell if you're making fun of me, whether that's something the Chaos clan does specifically to their men, or whether you're completely serious about this," Elliot replied.

Serene smiled back at him. "Swift-Arrows-In-The-Chaos-Of-Battle swears by it as a most effective tool." 

"…and so he tried to figure a way to seduce the mermaid and not get killed, once he learned the correct sign for it," Luke said, returning with the pot full of water.

"That's a lie and you know it," Elliot said, happy to change the subject. After a beat, he added, "I still haven't figured out whether the mermaid language actually has the concept of seducing someone without killing them afterward."

"Do all humans from beyond the Border have such voracious appetites?" Golden asked Luke as he put the pot close to the fire to heat the water.

"No," Luke replied, "just Elliot. Apart from the incident where a unicorn chased the entire company up trees, though, it's often turned out to be more helpful than harmful."

"How did you get down?" Golden asked. "Unicorns can be very persistent when they are angered."

"Turned out Luke was gifted and talented about everything except the bedroom," Elliot said, enjoying how the blush on Luke's face inflamed completely into scarlet. "I don't blame him, though. The Sunborn reputation meant a lot of people threw themselves at him with hope that he'd be the finest lover they'd ever have. They couldn't have known he wasn't interested in most of them."

"Was this with the wings?" Golden asked.

"Before," Elliot said. "Now, though, there's always someone from the Forest of Aeries stopping by with something for Luke and varying degrees of subtlety in their come-ons." Now that they'd established diplomatic relationships with the harpies, Elliot had campaigned immediately to get the name changed from the Forest of Suicides. Even if the cartographers had been more convinced by Luke asking for the change and the harpies were much more interested in keeping Luke alive and happy with them to try and make more harpies, the result had been good for everyone.

"When is the water ready?" Luke said, trying to change the subject.

"When it's hot enough to dissolve the chocolate powder," Elliot replied.

"Then it's ready," Luke said, not wanting Elliot to have any time to get back to his story. Thankfully, Elliot directed them to each open their sachet of cocoa, put the powder in the bottom of the cups, add the hot water, stir until the powder had dissolved, and then stuff as many marshmallows as they could into it without overflowing the cup. 

"So sweet!" Golden nearly shouted, after taking a sip. "Do you normally drink this in the Outerlands?"

"Special occasions only," Elliot said sourly. "Like when Mom was actually home for the holidays."

"I like it," Luke said, after sipping his own cup. "Almost as sweet as the mead that would be passed around at home during this time."

"I do not care for the taste of the marshmallows," Serene said thoughtfully, "but I think I would have enjoyed introducing this to the rest of my clan at our year-end gathering. I have a feeling that Swift-Arrows-In-The-Chaos-Of-Battle would have found it delightful both as a drink and as a way of aggravating my mother with something that is not traditional."

"Just how important is tradition among the elves?" Luke asked Golden, trying to pitch it so that only he would hear. He'd remembered elvish hearing was better than human hearing. 

"In practice, not nearly as much as our parents would have us believe," Serene said, proving either than elvish hearing was far better than Luke remembered, or that he'd been too loud trying to be quiet. Looking straight at Elliot, she added, "But I am glad to be able to share drinks among my family."

Golden nodded enthusiastically. "I am glad to be with people who think I am capable of more than looking pretty and trying to catch the attention of elf maidens."

Luke smiled. "I'm so glad we're all with people who accept us as we are, even if who we are has substantially changed over the last year."

Everyone looked expectantly at Elliot to finish the thought they had all been working on.

"Why do you think I brought hot chocolate?" he said, shrugging. "Drink it before it gets cold. Then we can all get into bed. It's been too long since we've had the entire camp to ourselves, and I intend to make the most of it." Elliot pointedly took a long drink from his own cup to illustrate his point. 

"He really is shameless, isn't he?" Golden murmured to Serene as they washed the cups afterward.

"He is," Serene said, smiling. "As a cadet, his forwardness helped me feel at ease about my decision to be part of the war and council tracks together, and it was, in no small way, a certain amount of flattering to be pursued in such a way, even if it turns out that Elliot pursues everyone he considers attractive with the same amount of zeal."

"Do you think he thinks of us as family? He seemed unwilling to say it then," Golden said.

"I think he does, yes," Serene said, "although I think of all of you as _my_ family, and I believe Elliot is smart enough not to contradict me."

"Elliot, stop that! My feathers are ticklish!" Luke said as a clear call for help from somewhere out of sight of the two elves.

"Men," Serene said, sighing. "Will you finish here, my Golden? And then come join us inside?"

"Of course," he said, taking the cup from her.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Elliot called a little while afterward. "But it's also really, really sexy. Shouldn't Golden be here to help?"

Golden shook his head. At times he felt like an outsider to the bond that Luke, Elliot, and Serene had forged while they were cadets, but they all had made significant effort to make him feel welcome and included, even if it was not in ways he had been taught were acceptable.

"Golden, get in here!" Elliot shouted. "Serene's making me wait, and I don't like it!"

Golden considered his options, asked himself what Serene would want him to do, and decided to take as long a route as possible to the developing situation.


End file.
